How much would mum cost?

If you haul yourself into an office every morning and return home 10 hours later with a bad case of Tube rage, the life of a stay-at-home wife and mother may seem like a paradise of stress-free domesticity.

A little light cleaning, hours in the park enjoying the sunshine with the kids, and then perhaps some undemanding yet creative kitchen activity, preparing dinner for a weary hubby. It's misunderstandings like this, sad to say, that lead straight to the divorce courts.

Without swapping roles, it's almost impossible for husbands to imagine what their wives get up to during the day; just as wives, tormented by visions of expense-account lunches and all that free time to make phone calls, rapidly forget what it's like to be a wage slave.

It's not simply that a woman's work is never done, although with the way chaos accumulates in the average house, it rarely is, and then only for about 10 minutes. It's also that, supposing the worst happened and your other half was run over by a bus, it would be prohibitively expensive to replace her. Recent research has revealed that most men drastically underestimate the cost of paying for the work their wives do in the home, and that 49 per cent of mothers aren't covered by life insurance. To find out the true worth of a woman's work, we asked Miranda Griffin, who lives in Wandsworth with her husband Nick, an internet entrepreneur, and two children, Joe, five, and Maddy, three, to itemise her week. A full-time wife and mother with no outside help, her multi-tasking multi-competence proved to be quite a challenge to replace. Opposite are the real-life professionals Nick would have to employ if Miranda downed tools ...

CHILDCARE

Three-year-old Maddy spends twoanda-half hours at nursery, four days a week; Joe's school hours are 8.30am to 3.20pm. That means Miranda is parenting Maddy for 158 hours a week; Joe needs slightly less - 133 hours, 50 minutes a week.

Cost: Jane Gledhill, nanny, would cost about £300 plus tax a week if she worked as a full-time, live-in nanny (through the London Nanny Company, 020 7591

Yearly total: £15,600, plus tax.

CLEANING AND IRONING

Miranda spends about 20 hours a week keeping the house clean and tidying up after the family. She spends another hour ironing.

Cost: Terry Whitrod, cleaner, charges £7 an hour.

Yearly total: £7,644.

COOKING

Meals for the children, plus dinner for her and Nick when they've gone to bed, takes about 14 hours a week.

Cost: Jeff Witton, chef, charges about £16 an hour to cook on the premises (London's Flying Chef, 020 7633 0099).

Yearly total: £11,648.

DRIVING

Nick can't drive, so Miranda is the family's chauffeur. Taking the children to and from school, visiting the supermarket and socialising at the weekend means about eight hours a week in the car.

Cost: Richard O'Connor, chauffeur, charges about £25 an hour (through UK-chauffeurs.com, 020 7733 2883).

Yearly total: £10,400.

WASHING AND MENDING

Miranda spends two hours a week doing the family washing, and about another 15 minutes sewing on name tags and buttons, taking up husband's trousers, etc.

Cost: Andrea Falconer, laundress and seamstress, charges £20.70 for a family-sized wash, plus £10.50 for alterations (through Jubilee Drycleaners, 020 8874 8999).

Yearly total: £1,622.40.

GARDENING

Over the course of the year, Miranda spends an average of one hour a week looking after her garden.

Cost: Brent White, gardener, charges £25 an hour (through Anthony de Grey Gardens, 020 7738 8866).

Yearly total: £1,300.

DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATING

Paying household bills, making appointments with the dentist, booking a plumber, filling out a mortgage application, plus organising playdates for the children, dinner parties, calling her mother-in-law, buying presents and cards takes Miranda about six hours a week.

Cost: April Caves, secretary, charges around £11.95 per hour (through THS Resourcing, 020 7251 5544).

Yearly total: £3,728.40.

THERAPY

Miranda spends three-and-a-half hours a week providing emotional support and general TLC to her husband at the end of a long day.

Cost: Martin Weaver, psychotherapist, charges about £55 an hour (contact him on 07931 387551. He is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 0870 443 5252.).

Yearly total: £10,010.

SHOPPING

Buying clothes for the children and Nick takes 30 minutes a week. Food shopping takes up two-andahalf hours a week.

Cost: Sacha Baker, lifestyle manager, charges £30 an hour for personal shopping (through Ten UK, 07000 10 1999, www.tenuk.com).

Yearly total: £4,680.

HOME TUTORING

Doing workbooks with Maddy and making sure Joe does his homework takes Miranda about five hours a week.

Cost: Julia Sobrivinsky, classroom assistant and teacherintraining, would charge £10 an hour as a home tutor.

Yearly total: £2,600.

DIY

A dab hand with a drill, it falls to Miranda to put up pictures, mend toys and carry out minor household maintenance, which takes about two hours a week.

Cost: Gary Parker, handyman, charges £40 an hour plus VAT for the first hour, £28 an hour plus VAT thereafter (through Redjacks agency, 0800 056 0571).

Yearly total: £3,536 plus VAT.

RESEARCHING

Miranda spends an hour a week reading up on the children's education, and researching sibling rivalry, behavioural problems etc.

Cost: Anne Mullee, who is a researcher, charges £10 an hour.

Yearly total: £520.

CAR MAINTENANCE

As the driver in the family, Miranda is also responsible for minor car maintenance - changing headlight bulbs, topping up oil and water and so on, which takes up 20 minutes a week.

Cost: Bill Dyson, Clapham garage mechanic, charges £30 an hour (call Dyson Motors on 020 7720 5072).

Yearly total: £520.

NURSING

Based on the children having two bouts of sickness of three days over a year, Miranda spends five-anda-half hours a week on nurse duty.

Cost: Ellie Holland, nurse, charges £17 an hour on the day shift (through Capital Staffing, 020 7407 8686).

Yearly total: £4,862.

GRAND TOTAL: £78,306.80